First cruise missile — Kettering’s Bug

Powered and controlled aviation began in the early years of the 20th century and aircraft rapidly evolved through WW I becoming large and with multiple engines — even flying onto and off of water. Glenn Curtiss had plans to have the first aircraft design to fly across the Atlantic with the America* — a Curtiss Model H — in 1914, barely a decade after the first controlled flight under power by the Wright Brothers in 1903. Cruise missiles also had their start in WW I with the Kettering Aerial Torpedo, more popularly known as the “Kettering Bug”, which could deliver a 180 lb (81kg) warhead to a target 75 miles (120km) away.

A Kettering Bug replica at the National Museum of the USAF — photo by Joe May

The Kettering Bug** has a lot in common with the Feisler V-1 “Buzzbomb” of WW II, more often considered to be the first cruise missile. Both took off from a rail, both had courses and distances set at the time of launch, both dropped onto targets by cutting fuel supply to the engine after a predetermined distance had been flown, and both were stabilized by gyrocompasses. The Kettering Bug was powered by an internal combustion engine driving a propeller while the V-1 was jet powered — though the V-1 had a longer range of 150 miles (250km) and a heavier warhead of 1870 lb (850kg) warhead.

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